It might take until March for the U.S. Government Accountability Office to explain its recent rulings in two protests against a $4.7 billion liquid waste management contract at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The agency on Feb. 8 upheld one protest and rejected another, but has not released the decisions.
“We are actively working on coordinating redactions with the parties and anticipate having a public version available within the next three weeks,” Kenneth Patton, GAO managing associate general counsel for procurement law, said by email Thursday.
Savannah River EcoManagement, a joint venture of BWXT Technical Services Group, Bechtel National, and Honeywell International, was awarded the 10-year contract on Oct. 12. The two losing bidders –Fluor Westinghouse Liquid Waste Services and Savannah River Technology and Remediation, a joint venture of AECOM and CH2M – filed protests with the GAO on Oct. 31.
BWXT and Bechtel are partners with CH2M in the AECOM-led liquid waste incumbent, Savannah River Remediation.
On Feb. 9, the GAO revealed it had sustained the protest brought against DOE by the AECOM-CH2M team, which had “challenged the propriety of the agency’s evaluation in connection with the award of the contract,” according to the congressional auditor. However, the decision was issued under a protective order because it might include proprietary information.
The GAO denied a protest filed by the Fluor-Westinghouse team.
The agency did not weigh in on which proposal DOE should have selected. “GAO’s decision expresses no view as to the merits of the proposals submitted,” Patton said in a statement. The GAO said DOE had not evaluated the viability of the bid winner’s proposed technical solution to carrying out the contract, which involves operation of facilities for storage, treatment, and disposal of about 35 million gallons of Cold War-era liquid waste.
The DOE Office of Environmental Management did not reply to inquiries on how it might proceed now. The Government Accountability Office “recommended that the agency determine whether it was necessary to reopen negotiations in connection with the acquisition, and also to reevaluate proposals, whether or not negotiations are reopened,” the GAO said in its original statement on the decision.
The incumbent contractor team remains on the job through the end of May under an interim extension issued by DOE.
Aside from AECOM, which issued a brief statement saying it was pleased its protest was sustained, the other parties have kept publicly mum on the matter.